HOW TO KEEP PACE WITH THE SECURITY CAT AND MOUSE GAME

While companies have gotten better at identifying cyber risks over the years, the ‘cat and mouse game’ with cyber criminals has continued to evolve as new cyber threats have emerged. The evolving regulatory and legal environment also requires companies to continually recalibrate their cyber readiness. So, what approaches can be effective in these ever-changing times?

As ever, the New Year heralded the release of a great swathe of annual cyber security trend reports. The eagerness among cyber security professionals to remain informed about the threats they face and the emerging trends in the space is natural and to be applauded. It is extremely rare for reports to find significant reductions in cyber security risks and threats.

As the internet fostered greater connectivity and communication, among other benefits, the related risks and threats have continued to plague users. Threats related to malware, ransomware, data leakage, and legal and regulatory non-compliance continue to exist despite practitioners’ best intentions and commendable efforts.

It is imperative, therefore, that companies consider whether their security measures are misaligned or inadequate, or whether they have missed anything of importance. Though companies have grown accustomed to cyber security, there are still fundamental processes, such as patch management or vulnerability management, that many companies have still not mastered. The changing regulatory environment, the variety of available software and the combination of proprietary and open source software only adds to the complexities of the cyber security process. The extended perimeter, in which resources stretch into the cloud, the internet of things, DevOps and many other factors, seem to skew complexities even further.

Jan-Mar 2021 Issue

ISACA